Anti-abortion Leader Teaches Options

November 11, 1984|by CHERYL WENNER, Sunday Call-Chronicle

"I don't think anyone should claim to be an expert on teen-agers," said Molly Kelly, executive director of the southeastern division of Pennsylvanians for Human Life (PHL), speaking yesterday at a Life Conference at Northampton County Area Community College.

Although she may deny any expertise, Mrs. Kelly - a mother of eight, five of whom are in their teens - carries more credentials than most.

A Philadelphian, she gives more than 300 educational talks every year to high school students in Delaware Valley school districts and 18 months ago helped found the Delaware Valley Pro-Life Alliance, a group offering alternatives to abortion.

Mrs. Kelly raised her children alone after the death of her husband Jim in a sledding accident nine years ago. It was her husband's interest in the anti- abortion cause that spurred her to involvement.

"After his death, I had a need to feel Jim's presence continuing in my life," she said, "I knew I could make it on my own, but I also knew I had to feel he was still with me somehow."

Her practical experience with children helps her to communicate with students without preaching. "It doesn't pay to demand that 'you must do this' or 'you have no choice' because, yes, they do have a choice. The goal is to help them make the right choice," she said.

"Besides telling them that there are alternatives to abortions, we tell them something Planned Parenthood legally isn't required to tell them: what harm abortions and some contraceptives can do to their bodies."

She added, "Sex is so prevalent today. It's put on a false pedestal where people can see it, share it, talk about it. What should be a private, beautiful, unique experience between two people is reduced to a physical act, a consumer commodity."

PHL members emphasize that ideally, sex education should be in the home, but since ignorance remains a problem, Mrs. Kelly said it is up to the schools to offer sex education. But she frowns on the use of texts and other materials - especially those provided by Planned Parenthood - that describe the types of birth control available.

Some family planning organizations "teach 'value-free' sex education," she claims. "What that amounts to is how to do it without getting caught. It's sex training, not sex education.

"Abortion is murder. Never before has so much evil been so readily accepted by society," she said. "What happened to the battle between evil and good? Did we lose?"

Jeralyn Pickel, a representative of Women Exploited by Abortion, spoke about the psychological consequences she suffered after her ownabortion and advised conference participants on starting support groups to aid women who have been "scarred by having an abortion."

"An effective group needs a strong leadership, a good book and positive action," she recommended. "Just don't come together to feel sorry for yourselves. Don't hold a pity party."

Mrs. Pickel recalled the short-term psychological effects - guilt, an obsession with babies - that she suffered after her abortion, an operation she said she never wanted. "I went to my doctor, told him I didn't want the abortion and he told me to stop being a romantic, as if it was foolish to want my baby."

Yesterday's program also included discussions on fetal development, euthanasia and alternatives to abortion.